


Last Resort

by zombiegardener



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Are you happy now?, Canon Compliant, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Mind Meld, Pining, Slow Burn, Soul Bond, at some point, but fine available tags, i kind of like that better, i refuse to use the phrase soul bond, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:21:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8272651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombiegardener/pseuds/zombiegardener
Summary: The Voltron Force finds a way to predict Galra movements. It doesn't end well. Chaos ensues.Note April 2017: I swear I haven't abandoned this, but I have to rewrite large bits because I didn't get to it pre-season 2 and now some of it doesn't make sense and life is hectic. But I'll get there.





	1. Wheel in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Most of this chapter is from Lance's pov, but the whole fic won't be. So there's that. 
> 
> This is kind of a mind bond sort of fic- or will be- and I can't believe I"m writing it, but I really kind of like the later chapters.

Lance couldn’t sleep. That wasn’t unusual in and of itself, or at least it wasn’t anymore. He could remember a time when he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow and he managed to sneak in a solid 8 hours of beauty sleep on most every night that didn’t involve cramming for exams or convincing Hunk to sneak out of the Garrison or hanging with friends. Those things were choices, though, that he was glad to lose sleep over.

Now, with the constant battles and tension and alarms blaring at all hours, half of the time he couldn’t remember whether it was supposed to be day or night. He was pretty sure that was one of the hazards of space travel they’d learned about in class. Not the alarms and Galra and a giant space robot, but the loss of Circadian rhythms and the biological effects thereof. He wished he could remember more. He was almost tired enough to wish he still had his notes, but not quite.

Instead he’d developed a routine on the nights he found himself aimlessly wandering the empty echoing castle halls and trying not to think of angry ghosts that had gone unheard for 10,000 years. It was on a night like this, when he’d woken from a half-remembered nightmare that had propelled him out of bed desperate for any distraction, that he’d come up with his plan.

He’d wandered past the control room and paused at the door, tired gaze drifting over the consoles as something Allura had said earlier in the week came back to him. The castle had received 10,000 years of distress calls. _10,000 years _. The thought alone was enough to grab his attention, because holy crow, humans had barely been farming 10,000 years ago, hadn’t they? That thought had triggered an urge to find out how far from Earth the Galra had been 10,000 years ago if only to try to see how close his home had come to being wiped out before humanity as he knew it even had a chance to exist.__

__He’d pulled up the map of the universe and played with the controls until he figured out a way to move through time as well as through space and then had put the Galra movements over the millennia on a loop. Watching the march across the stars and the fall of planets and galaxies one by one was horrifying. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought it would make an excellent recruitment video for a resistance movement. It was almost more like a YouTube parody of Star Wars than something he could call his life._ _

__He couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to live through it, even with his recent up close and personal experience. Watching huge ships fall out of a cloudless summer sky or through the winter snow, blocking out the sun and stars until there wasn’t room for anything but fear and horror._ _

__He’d glanced away from the map and back at the consoles, sitting vacant in what must once have been a hectic and busy control room full of people to hear those cries, and the answer came to him. He couldn’t do anything about the past, but maybe he could organize those calls. Coran and Allura had mentioned more than once that it needed to be done, but no one ever had the time. Maybe he could do this, acknowledge the voices ripped away by the Galra. It wasn’t much, but it was something and it was better than walking the halls like a ghost._ _

____

***

Tonight had been another bad night. Lance had managed maybe an hour of sleep before the dreams woke him, cries ringing in his ears that he wasn’t good enough or fast enough to reach his friends before it was too late. Hunk’s scream, Pidge’s suddenly silenced voice, Keith’s blood on his hands, Shiro’s laughter turned dark and almost mad…

He’d propelled himself out of bed and was in the control room before his breathing managed to return to normal. 

By now the familiarity of the routine was soothing. He pulled up the database and noted where he was the last time he couldn’t sleep, but tonight the pull of the past felt too cold and distant. Instead, he pulled up the more recent logs and got to work.

He’d been at it for hours, because there was no way was he even trying to go back to sleep tonight, when a pattern suddenly took root in his sleep-deprived brain. He flipped through other logs, holding his breath against the sudden burst of adrenaline and something that felt like hope, but everywhere he looked the pattern was still there.

Grabbing for his personal communicator (which Pidge and Hunk had engineered in a bid to stop someone- fine, _him_ , and it was totally worth it- from broadcasting inappropriate messages on the castle comm when bored) with one hand while still staring at the maps rotating in front of him, he opened the line to the first person that came to mind.

“Hunk? Hunk, buddy, are you awake?”

There was a pause with nothing, and then, “Lance?” Hunk’s voice was slurred and heavy with sleep but it was there.

“Yeah, it’s me. Are you awake?”

“Not really, bro. It’s what?” There was a rustling noise that suggested that Hunk was shifting around, but he hadn’t turned the communicator off, so that was something. “3 A.M.? What the hell, Lance?”

“Hunk, listen, it’s important. Can you just…” He glanced back at the maps, but his eyes were too unfocused to see them. “Can you come to the control room? I think there’s something you should see.”

“What? The where?”

“The control room. Please, Hunk?”

“Yeah, yeah, all right, man. Give me a few.”

“Thanks buddy.” 

Lance flipped off the channel and set another map to spinning. Maybe, if he was right and not just going into some weird bout of delirium, they could actually help someone before it was too late.

***

Hunk blinked sleep from his eyes and tried to focus. Lance was almost bouncing, his energy overwhelming given the late hour and the pace of the last few days.

“No, wait. Slow down. Pretend that I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

Lance gave him a look that he recognized from one too many late nights at the Garrison. Of course he’d be assigned a roommate who had no idea that most people slept at night with no desire to get in trouble. It didn’t matter that Lance was his best friend and that he loved him like a brother, sometimes Lance just needed to slow his manic energy the fuck down and let other people catch up. Especially when he’d actually been in a happy sleep mostly absent of dreams 20 minutes ago.

Lance sighed in a tone that said louder than words that he was being almost unbearably patient. Hunk let it go, because it was worth it to see Lance like this. The last few weeks had been rough on everyone.

“Just watch, okay?”

He hit the maps again, starting some sort of temporal loop that Hunk hadn’t even known was a possibility. He was too tired to be impressed, and besides, nothing Lance did in the middle of the night really surprised him anymore. He’d lost that ability sometime after the marshmallow incident.

Hunk blinked and tried not to think of his bed. Slowly though, the patterns in the light grabbed his attention despite his lack of sleep. He could feel his exhausted synapses starting to fire as he watched. “Is that…” He blinked and refocused, suddenly fully awake. “How long is this loop?”

“Two hundred years, but I can pull it back further.” Lance’s hands danced over the keys in a way that would have impressed Pidge and spoke volumes about how many times he’d looked at this before he woke Hunk up. The lights sped up. “That’s 1000 years. I’ve looked back farther, but it doesn’t change.”

“I think.” Hunk glanced around again and grinned, suddenly feeling as awake as if he’d slept all night. “I think I should look at the raw numbers.” Lance was returning his grin, and Hunk almost burst out laughing. “And I think we should wake up Allura and Coran. They really need to see this.”

***

“Paladins, please report to the control room immediately!”

Coran’s voice went up almost an octave when he was excited. Fighting down a grin, Lance leaned back against the console in castle control next to Hunk and watched Coran twirl his mustache with something like glee. He still couldn’t place the accent and was idly wondering if his brain was supplying him with one and if so why it was Australian when the rest of the team filed in. He straightened unconsciously and searched their expressions, wondering how this was going to go. If it was anyone else it wouldn’t be an issue, but it was him and he just kind of hoped someone besides Hunk and Coran would listen. Even Allura had sifted through the data he’d pulled out of the castle archives and talked to Hunk in a lot more detail than Lance thought was strictly necessary before deciding that he might be right, which kind of hurt in an oddly detached sort of way. He knew he wasn’t Pidge or Hunk, but he was also pretty sure he wasn’t a total idiot. Then again, he’d think that if he was, wouldn’t he? But no, he wasn’t going back down this sleep-deprived spiral again.

Shiro glanced at him oddly, which was totally unfair because he was not always the last one here, before turning his attention to the princess. “Okay, Allura, we’re here. What’s up? Was there a distress call?”

“Yes, in a manner of speaking.” She paused, and Lance glanced at his teammates. Mostly they were looking expectant, although Keith was starting to look impatient. Nothing new there. “We’ve noticed an odd pattern in the distress calls that have come in over the last twenty of years or so.” She smiled then and glanced back at Lance and Hunk. “Or rather Lance did. But I think we may have something useful.”

“Lance did?”

Lance rolled his eyes at the skepticism in Pidge’s voice. “Wow, Pidge, that really hurts.”

“Right, but, what?”

Lance sighed. “Look, I’ve been organizing the distress calls that have been coming in on nights I can’t sleep, because why not?”

"You've been organizing distress calls?" Shiro’s tone of voice was skeptical, but that one he could shake off. Under any other circumstances just the thought of this conversation would probably have been hilarious.

"Yessss." Lance strung out the word as rubbed at his neck in embarrassment and focused his attention anywhere but at the team. "I mean, I've got to do something. I'm not an engineering or computer genius. I'm not completely fucking obsessed with training until I collapse, thank you very much. It's boring, but no more than the physics exam I'd probably be studying for back at home, and Coran is going to give himself a stroke if he has to keep coming up with things for me to do to keep me distracted because he's feeling sorry for me. He's not exactly a cadet anymore."

“Hey!”

“Sorry Coran.”

"Lance." Keith’s tone was full of the skepticism that was rolling off of everyone else, and it kind of pissed Lance off.

"Shut up, Keith." He shook his head, letting the ridiculousness of the situation roll off his shoulders. "Besides, I can listen to my music and the last time I had to clean something the castle tried to kill me. Now are you going to listen or not?"

Keith blinked. “Yeah, sure, sorry.”

He cast a sideways glance at Hunk, who pulled up a map of the galaxy they’d just been looking at. “I think there’s a pattern to the distress beacons, at least in some places. Like this.” He gestured to one to make it zoom in as Hunk switched back the temporal loop a hundred years or so. “It’s not always on. It flips on and off on at 20 year intervals or so, like the Galra are there but then they get what they need and leave and someone turns the beacon off, but at intervals.” And now he was repeating himself. And trying not to squirm like his five-year-old sister. Awesome.

Hunk put the time lapse on a loop. Pidge frowned, eyes darting over the virtual map. “Are you sure it’s not a malfunction?”

Lance glanced at Hunk, who grinned back at him. “I thought that maybe at first, but there’s too many of them and they’re spread all over the place, and the temporal patterns are all identical.” Almost bouncing with excitement now, Hunk pulled up multiple graphics and flung them haphazardly around the room. A few more clicks had one beacon in each map shining in red instead of the usual purple and very obviously winking on and off. The disappearances and reappearances didn’t happen at the same time, but the time intervals between the on/off switch were amazingly consistent.

Shiro was turning in a slow circle with a frown on his face. “Okay, but what does it mean?”

Lance leaned back again, content to let Hunk and Allura field the questions.

“We’re not sure.” Allura bit her lip as she stared at the blinking dots. “Maybe something the Galra are harvesting replenishes over a 20-year time frame?”

“Quintessence?” Keith was standing still, but his eyes were obviously tracking the maps like they held the key to understanding the Galra. It was kind of gratifying.

“No idea. Maybe? Can quintessence recover?” Hunk and Allura were off again, excitement rising as they dragged the maps into different positions around the room.

Lance felt movement out of the corner of his eyes and glanced down at Pidge, who was frowning up at him. “How did you even see this? I’ve looked over that data a hundred times.”

And there was reality crashing back in again. Lance sighed and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “It’s a pattern, Pidge. Even toddlers can see patterns. Have you ever watched Sesame Street?”

Pidge shot him a look. “That’s not what I meant.”

Lance shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep and I was flipping through one galaxy and this planet kept popping up, so I pulled up the map. Then I pulled up other maps because flashing lights are pretty at 3:00 AM, and it’s kind of hard to miss when you do that.”

“Um, guys?” Keith’s voice cut through the conversations, and Lance turned to find him frowning at the maps. “This is interesting, but how does it help?”

“Oh!” Coran jumped up and shoved Hunk away from the console so he could pull in the focus on one galaxy. “Because if this is right, the Galra should be at planet Elixo in the next couple of weeks.” 

Everyone stopped for a moment, eyes locked on the maps. “You mean…” Shiro’s voice trailed off and his eyes glazed over in thought. “…we might be able to predict where they’re going to hit?”

“Not just that,” Allura answered, eyes locked on the map with satisfaction, “but we know when they’re going to go after something so important that they’ve been visiting on a regular basis for thousands of years.”

“And if we can stop that…” Hunk couldn’t hold back the grin.

“…then maybe we can actually hurt them.” A slightly vicious smile crossed Shiro’s face and was echoed by everyone in the room. 

For the first time in weeks, they all allowed themselves to feel something like hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm apparently incapable of writing one story at a time. A lot of this is written, so I figured what the hell? 
> 
> I also refuse to believe Lance is an idiot. A large part of my PhD dissertation involved bioinformatics and I adore data patterns, but this is it for the data pattern portion of this fic. I promise. It's kind of all downhill emotionally from here.


	2. House of Cards and Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things progress...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help myself with the chapter summary. Today sucks and I can't concentrate on work, so I decided to work on this instead for a bit, because who needs to get paid? That also means that this chapter hasn't been extensively proofread, so I'm sorry?

It had taken most of a week, but they finally had a plan that seemed solid. Now all they needed to do was wait.

Elixo, the first planet on the “Galra hit list” as Lance had taken to calling it, wasn’t home to any sentient species. It had probably been a beautiful place once, with dark violet skies over jagged mountain ranges that towered above fields and forests. The vegetation tended towards shades of aqua blue and the water filling the rivers, lakes, and oceans was tinged with pink, but otherwise he could have been standing on primeval Earth.

It would have been peaceful if the cracks in the façade didn’t show.

Keith leaned back against Red and looked out towards the mountains. There was life here. From where he was standing he could see birds of some sort circling above trees in the forest in the distance and there was movement out on the plains that was probably one of the herds of animals that looked like Dr. Moreau had crossed a moose and a squirrel, who were running in the ever-widening circles they seemed to favor. 

But underneath that life there were definitely cracks, like vegetation just barely covering the scars of strip mining he’d seen once in the mountains when he was a kid. Whatever the Galra were harvesting on such a regular basis was taking a toll.

And then there was the other half of the problem, the one that was keeping them all up at night. There was no sentient life here that they’d stumbled across, and they’d been looking. Almost frantically for the last two days. So how the hell was there a distress beacon at all, much less one that was activated and then turned back off on a regular basis?

Pidge thought she’d managed to pinpoint the beacon’s location in the mountain range in the distance, but the location was approximate since the signal was currently silent and something was interfering with their tracking gear. Hunk and Pidge were currently scanning from Yellow because Hunk’s lion was the best equipped for this kind of thing and apparently had tools that no one had known existed until they’d appeared under Hunk’s fingers on a routine fly by.

Keith was pretty sure that one of these days they really needed to take the time to search their lions and figure out what other surprises were waiting that could be useful outside of life and death situations, but there never seemed to be time. 

The castle was currently hidden two planets away from their current location on an ice world inside an asteroid belt. Allura and Coran thought the interference would help cloak their presence from the Galra while leaving them close enough to act as back up if need be. Shiro and Lance were both there now, ready to move but staying behind so as not to leave the castle defenseless. Keith was supposed to be patrolling, but he and Red had been at it all day and right now he just kind of needed a break. He needed wide open spaces and air he could breathe and heat on his skin. The need had caught him off guard, but it was there all the same. So here he was, watching the horizon, which was a gratifying distance away, and listening through his com link as Red continuously scanned every channel for any incoming signal. It was boring work, and it was starting to wear after a solid week of nothing. Even the anxiety generated by the possibility of a trap had started to fade with time, because seriously, they could only stay keyed up and on high alert for so long when _nothing was happening_. The need for action was becoming an almost solid itch under his skin, and he could feel grumbling agreement from his lion through their link. So this break was necessary and he was _not_ slacking off, regardless of what the ever-annoying blue paladin had accused him of before Shiro had cut off their link to end what was honestly more entertainment and a way to blow off frustration than an actual argument.

He was just about to give up and climb back into Red when Hunk’s voice cut through the static coming from his lion’s endless searching.

“Guys? We might have something.”

***

Pidge shoved their glasses up as they jumped down from Yellow with a portable scanner in hand. The slope the lion was perched on was steep, and rocks slid precariously under their feet as they followed Hunk towards a cave set back into a pass between mountain ranges.

Yellow’s scanners had narrowed the possibility of an outgoing transmission to the area currently under their feet, and the only way in that they had been able to find other than blasting their way through solid rock was this cave.

Their portable scanner wasn’t picking up on any signs of life, but its distance wasn’t the best and it couldn’t detect heat signatures through rock so anything was possible.

They moved their gaze from the rocks underfoot and the silent scanner in their hands as they approached the cave. It was bigger than it had appeared from above, more of a gaping hole than the seam in the rock that they’d been expecting. Hunk paused at the entrance and turned on his light. The beam barely pierced the heavy darkness. Stepping up beside the big man, Pidge could make out vague outlines of rock formations in cathedral-like proportions that soared up into a shimmering mass of what appeared to be stalactites. 

“Keith, Shiro, are you getting this?”

Pidge glanced at Hunk and realized he was transmitting video from his visor. His head was tilting as he followed the light through the cavern.

As if in answer, there was a rush of wind and sound as Red cleared the peak and set down near Yellow. “Yeah... Sort of...” The transmission was filled with static that faded as Keith got closer. “Are you getting any readings?”

Pidge glanced down at the still silent scanner. “Nothing here. Shiro?”

They waited, but the com channel remained silent. Hunk glanced at the peaks around them and frowned as Keith slid down the precarious rock face and joined them. “There must be something blocking communications down here. That’s weird, though, because we have a direct line of sight and you heard me Keith, right?”

“Yep.” Keith frowned and took a step into the darkness. “Were you down here or back up with your lion? Maybe there’s something in the cave.”

“Maybe.” Hunk’s voice was starting to take on the uneasy tone he got when Lance came up with a brilliant idea that he knew he was going to end in screaming. Or detention. Or the Altean’s equivalent of detention, which involved way more cleaning duty than was strictly necessary. Pidge hid a smile hearing it directed at Keith for a change. “Maybe we should go back up and find out.”

“Probably.” Keith took another step and peered up through the darkness. “Or we could look around since we’re already here and then go and find out when we know something.” 

“Keith…”

Keith pulled out his own light and ventured into the cave, mind apparently made up. Pidge shrugged at Hunk and followed him, because he had a point. They hid a smile at Hunk’s familiar put upon sigh, confident that he would follow and have their back. He always did.

***

Hunk followed Keith and Pidge into the cave, fighting down his trepidation and silently cursing his choice of friends. He never had these problems growing up, or at least not as much. But no, first he followed his best friend out into the freaking desert and got dragged into space, and it was all downhill from there.

He knew he should put his foot down and make them go check out the communications. They’d listen if he did, he was pretty sure, because his instincts were solid. But… It was a cave. A huge cave. A very cool huge cave. He’d found Yellow in a cave. He was pretty sure his lion would warn him or something if they were going to die. So it was all good. Probably. Hopefully Shiro wasn’t trying to reach them, but they weren’t supposed to check in for another 15 minutes, so if they were quick maybe they wouldn’t even get yelled at, or worse, be on the receiving end of the Disappointed Space Dad Look™. He hated that look.

His inner monologue died down as he reached the center of the cave and realized that Keith and Pidge had stopped. He moved his light around, eyes going huge as the beam played over an enormous and unnaturally smooth slab of stone circled with tech that looked crazy advanced and well maintained. He forgot every bit of worry as he knelt down to take a closer look. One big finger moved with the light as he followed the circuits around the slab to a black box set into the rock itself. Kneeling down, he put the flashlight into his teeth and leaned in to take a closer look. 

He felt more than saw Pidge leaning over his shoulder. “Any thoughts?”

“Mmm.” He let his fingers trace the smooth box in search of a panel of some sort. He could feel a slight vibration under his fingertips, but the power source- if that’s what it was- was something he’d never seen before. Pidge flipped on their own light and wandered over to the far side of the slab before disappearing down behind the rock.

“Whatever this is, it’s well maintained.”

Hunk nodded absentmindedly before remembering no one could see him and spitting out the flashlight into an empty hand. “Definitely. Maybe it’s what’s jamming the communications? If I can find a panel and get it open to take a peek maybe I can figure out what it’s doing. Any luck over there?”

“Nothing specific. We have better scanners in your Lion.” There was a pause, and then Pidge’s voice turned speculative. “I wonder who’s maintaining it?”

“I think I may be able to answer that one.”

Hunk turned at Keith’s voice. The other paladin was turned away, his light shining at something just out of sight. With one last lingering glance at the tech, Hunk pushed himself up and joined him. 

His light played over the uneven cavern floor until suddenly it didn’t. He drew to a halt at Keith’s side, gaping at the stairs descending down into the cavern floor. They were perfectly smooth and covered with a light coating of dust that was undisturbed out to the edges of the light. He felt more than saw Pidge come up beside him, and the three of them stared in silence for a moment. “So,” Hunk started, but his voice faltered because, really, he had no idea where to go with this.

“So,” Pidge repeated in obvious agreement. “I guess that explains why the scanner isn’t picking up anything. Those steps look like they go straight down into the mountain.”

Hunk glanced down as Pidge gave the scanner an annoyed shake. “Still nothing?”

“Nothing.” Pidge tapped the scanner against a hip and gave the darkness a contemplative look. “I could try the FLIP-tech, like on Balmera.”

Keith finally turned away from his own contemplation of the hole. “Will the scanner pick up the readings?”

Pidge shrugged. “No idea, but I can fix that pretty quick I think. Then we could just drop it down and see.”

“No.” Hunk violently shook his head at the other two. “Uh-uh. If _Lord of the Rings_ taught me anything, it’s that things wake up when you drop stuff into mountain holes.” He glanced at his teammates and noted that neither of them seemed to be impressed by his flawless move trivia-related knowledge. 

Pidge rolled their eyes, but Hunk wasn’t letting this one go. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not saying there are orcs down there. I’m just saying this could be the trap we’ve been waiting for. New tech. A big dark hole. Add it up, man.”

Keith let out a huff of air and walked down a couple of the steps before crouching to shine his light further into the darkness. Hunk felt panic building for no logical reason. It was all he could do to not yank Keith bodily up the steps. Whatever. He was done with this. They were checking in like they should have done half an hour ago. Shiro was going to have a shit fit and they’d all be cleaning out the castle plumbing or waste recycling system or something. Did the castle _have_ a waste recycling system? It had to, right? That would be green as fuck. Like, award worthy greenness. Why hadn’t he ever thought to ask that question before faced with his possible impending death?

“Keith.” The name emerged with a bit more force than Hunk usually directed at anyone, which at least served to get his teammate’s attention. “Come on, be a buddy and get out of the hole. We really need to check in. Like, now.”

Keith stared up at him for a moment with something like surprise on his face, but followed Hunk readily enough as he turned to go. Hunk risked one last glance at the tech in the middle of the cavern, and noted Pidge doing the same. “We can come back. But seriously, guys, I think we missed our check-in window and I really don’t want to explain to Shiro that you were killed by Space Orcs.”

Keith released a surprised laugh as they exited the cave. “Space Orcs? You’ve been spending way too much time with Lance.”

Hunk felt himself grin, the tension easing away as they reemerged into the lilac-tinted sunlight. “You’ve got no room to talk. You’ve completely lost the right to bitch about Lance doing _anything_ without considering the consequences _ever again_.”

Keith shot him a look before turning his eyes back to the shifting rocks underfoot. “You would have totally followed Lance down those stairs.”

To Hunk’s surprise, it was Pidge who spoke up. “No, he wouldn’t have, because Lance would actually have contacted the castle first so Shiro didn’t freak. And probably waited if Shiro told him to.” They made a humming noise as the lions came into view over the ridge. “ _Then_ he would’ve totally gone into the hole. But at least people would know where he was and we could plan his funeral and put appropriate things on his memorial instead of wasting away with worry.”

Keith ignored the sarcasm and dusted off his hands as they crested the last ledge. “Right.”

Hunk heaved a sigh of relief as Yellow lowered his head in greeting. “True story. He’s only a totally irresponsible idiot when his hormones are involved.”

“Or me.”

Pidge shot him a withering look. “Right, Keith. _Or you.”_

_Whatever Keith would have said was lost as they opened their com links to the sound of people frantically yelling their names._

__

***

"So, what? You saw a huge dark hole with stairs descending down into the depths of a mountain in the pitch dark and it never occurred to you to take a step back and maybe not go into it _without letting us know what you were doing_? Because the Galra are still out there somewhere-"

“In theory.”

Keith saw Hunk wince at Pidge’s muttered aside, because that wasn’t helping. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Lance this mad before. He was pretty sure Hunk was avoiding looking at Shiro, because he’d been focused on his best friend since he’d jumped down from Blue before even letting her mouth reach the rocky ground and started in on them. The fact that Shiro was actually letting Lance yell at them didn’t bode well for anyone.

Keith decided to try to make a preemptive strike. "We didn’t know the communications were out until we got down there. It’s not like we planned it.” 

"Yes, but you also didn’t check in once you realized they were out." All three of them winced this time, because Shiro’s voice was frankly terrifying when it went flat like that. The thought that he’d been worried about them- about _him_ \- made guilt worm its way through Keith’s stomach. Which was stupid, because they were fine. He studiously ignored the little voice in his head that was informing him that he was supposed to be covering because Pidge got excited and would chase tech anywhere and Hunk wasn't much better and his job was to protect them because _they were fine_. And he’d listened. He _had_ , damn it!

Lance threw up his hands in an excessively dramatic gesture at Shiro's validation of his anger. "Seriously, guys, what the quiznak!"

Because it was Lance and proximity alone seemed to erode his self-preservation instincts, Keith really couldn't help himself. "I still don't think-"

"No." Lance made a cutting gesture with his hands. "Shut up, mullet. I'm pretty sure this is your fault!" His voice cracked on the last words and he fixed his narrowed eyes entirely on Keith. Keith didn’t need this, because the worry starting to show through the cracks in Lance’s anger was making his head hurt.

"Lance." Lance crossed his arms, still obviously one heartbeat from exploding. Keith kind of envied Shiro his ability to shut Lance up with a single word, or at least he did until Shiro's gaze found him and pinned him in place. "Seriously, Keith, you need to start thinking before you act. We've gone over this a thousand times. You were supposed to be providing cover, remember? That means watching and checking in. Not acting and completely skipping the checking in step!" Keith felt another surge of guilt, because Shiro was right. He was almost grateful when that leveling look turned to Hunk and Pidge, who noticeably forced themselves not to take a step backwards. Shiro visibly calmed himself again, although he still projected an aura of disappointment. "You all know that. If something had happened to you we wouldn't have had any idea where you were. This is too important. I thought we'd gotten past this and started working as a team. We had to leave the castle defenseless to come check on you when we couldn't raise you."

"Shiro..." Keith's voice trailed off under the looks being aimed at him by Shiro and Lance. Lance didn't have the high ground often, and he didn't appear to be in any hurry to let it go. Still, Keith could read the concern under the anger in their glares and felt his cheeks heat up, because they were right. "Shiro, I'm sorry. You're right. I wasn't thinking."

Shiro just sighed and turned away. "Keith, you're coming back with me. Lance, stay here and provide cover for Hunk and Pidge. Just see if you can figure out what that tech does and if it’s dangerous. Or relevant." The sarcasm dripping off those words told Keith that this conversation wasn't over yet, and he resisted the urge to rub at his eyes with his hands. "Just stay in contact, okay?"

"Yeah, of course." Lance shot him one last look at Shiro’s tone, this one containing far more sympathy, as Keith turned and followed their leader back towards the Lions.

***

In the end, that decision to not take a step back and assess almost cost them everything, because he and Shiro were back at the castle and Hunk and Pidge were still out of contact in the damned cavern when the first of the Galra fleet arrived, leaving Lance alone and vulnerable on the surface. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the mind meld thing will surface in the next chapter. It was going to be this chapter but it was getting ridiculously long and apparently I suck at writing battle scenes. Most of the later bits are written. I just have to get through that one part.


End file.
